1. Detroit Rock City

2. King Of The Night Time World

3. God Of Thunder

4. Great Expectations

5. Flaming Youth

6. Sweet Pain

7. Shout It Out Loud

8. Beth

9. Do You Love Me

Rolling Stone

There's no doubt that Destroyer is Kiss's best album yet or that Bob Ezrin, Alice Cooper's heavyhanded wizard of heavy-metal production who helped write seven of the nine tunes here, has made the difference. But despite Ezrin's superb production, Kiss still lacks that flash of creative madness that could have made their music interesting, or at least listenable.

The lead-off song, "Detroit, Rock City," begins with 90 seconds of Cooper-like effects: the sounds of the breakfast table and a news announcer in the background reading a story of a kid who died in a head-on collision; then a flashback to the doomed youth entering his car that night, his mind undoubtedly on the song that follows, and finally in the coda, the screeching crash. Unfortunately, Kiss entirely lacks the satiric distance that often made Cooper's use of such conceits genuinely funny, and worse yet, such gimmickry is the best Destroyer has to offer.

The songs, save for two bloated ballads, are relentless riff rockers rooted in patently pedestrian drumming. Although constructed with professional aplomb, making use of a wide array of heavy-metal conventions, there's nothing new here. Even when an effective melody, such as the rabble-rousing "Shout It Out Loud," is presented, the lackluster performances dampen the effect. The vocals are undistinguished and emotionally empty; the lyrics—about partying and the rock scene, with plenty of campy S&M allusions—trite. Worse yet, there's not a memorable guitar solo on the album.

All Music

The pressure was on Kiss for their fifth release, and the band knew it. Their breakthrough, Alive!, was going to be hard to top, so instead of trying to recreate a concert setting in the studio, they went the opposite route. Destroyer is one of Kiss' most experimental studio albums, but also one of their strongest and most interesting. Alice Cooper/ Pink Floyd producer Bob Ezrin was on hand, and he strongly encouraged the band to experiment — there's extensive use of sound effects (the album's untitled closing track), the appearance of a boy's choir ("Great Expectations"), and an orchestra-laden, heartfelt ballad ("Beth"). But there's plenty of Kiss' heavy thunder-rock to go around, such as the demonic "God of Thunder" and the sing-along anthems "Flaming Youth," "Shout It Out Loud," "King of the Night Time World," and "Detroit Rock City" (the latter a tale of a doomed concert-goer, complete with violent car crash sound effects). But it was the aforementioned Peter Criss ballad "Beth" that made Destroyer such a success; the song was a surprise Top Ten hit (it was originally released as a B-side to " Detroit Rock City"). Also included is a song that Nirvana would later cover ("Do You Love Me?"), as well as an ode to the pleasures of S&M, "Sweet Pain." Destroyer also marked the first time that a comic book illustration of the band appeared on the cover, confirming that the band was transforming from hard rockers to superheroes.